Despite Bomb Tests, Russia Is Selling 2 Nuclear Plants to India

By MICHAEL R. GORDON

Published: June 23, 1998

MOSCOW, June 22—
Russia has agreed to sell two nuclear power stations to India, defying calls to punish New Delhi because of its testing of nuclear weapons.

The head of the Atomic Energy Ministry here concluded the deal, worth $3 billion or more to Russia's cash-starved nuclear energy industry, on Sunday.

The sale had become an important test case for Washington as it tries to marshal world opinion against India.

After unsuccessful American efforts to persuade Russia not to sell atomic reactors to Iran or advanced antiaircraft systems to Cyprus, the Indian sale has become another indication of Washington's limited influence with the Yeltsin Government.

The United States tried to head off the sale even before India stunned the world by exploding nuclear devices in May. After India's nuclear tests, Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright again urged Moscow to abandon the negotiations.

The construction of the civilian plants themselves will have little military significance. But American officials say they violate an important principle: the world community should not engage in nuclear cooperation with aspiring nuclear weapon states.

''This sends the wrong message to the world and to India and Pakistan,'' said James P. Rubin, the State Department spokesman, in Washington. ''Instead of pursuing business as usual, we should be scaling back this cooperation.''

Indian officials hailed the sale, saying it would help thwart the American-led effort to impose economic sanctions.

Moscow has long enjoyed close ties to India. During Soviet days, Russia saw India as a counterweight to China, as well as a customer for weaponry. At the same time, Moscow had little love for Pakistan, which cooperated with American efforts to aid Afghan rebels after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

Under the tutelage of Foreign Minister Yevgeny M. Primakov, Russia has maintained close ties with New Delhi for foreign policy as well as commercial reasons.

Mr. Kumar visited the Zhukovsky airfield outside Moscow to observe the lastest model of the warplane, which can be equipped with bombs, cluster munitions and air-to-air and air-to-surface missiles.

Russia has also promised to sell India attack submarines and is discussing the sale of anti-ship missiles and other weapons.

Russia and the United States have been at odds over the nuclear deal for years. The origins of the dispute go back to 1992, when nuclear suppliers agreed to a broadened system of export controls.

The basic idea behind the 1992 agreement was that countries should not get the benefit of nuclear energy without committing themselves to use it only for peaceful purposes.

More specifically, the agreement forbade suppliers to export nuclear technology to aspiring nuclear powers that did not agree to let nuclear monitors into all of their sites. The effect was to preclude nuclear sales to India, since it has not accepted such far-reaching safeguards.

Russia joined the 1992 agreement. But economic pressure on its nuclear industry prompted Russian officials to look for a way to sell sell two 1,000-megawatt reactors to India.

Russian officials argued that Moscow had a right to proceed with the India deal on the ground that the sale had been contemplated in a 1988 Soviet-Indian agreement, an argument Washington rejects.

While negotiations between Russia and India dragged on, India's nuclear tests raised the stakes. Washington urged Moscow to drop the deal. But it has never sought to link American support for Western financial aid to Russia's shaky economy with Moscow's cooperation on security issues.

Russia's new Atomic Energy Minister, Yevgeny Adamov, pressed hard for the sale. His ministry has become increasingly dependent on exports to pay its workers build more nuclear plants in Russia. Yevgeny A. Reshnetnikov, a senior atomic energy official, said last year that each reactor was worth $1.5 billion to $2 billion.

Mr. Adamov flew to India last weekend to cement the deal with the chairman of India's Atomic Energy Commission, Rajagopal Chidambaram.

Indian officials have their own reasons for proceeding with the costly purchase. They want to break out of their diplomatic isolation and spite the United States, and to encourage other nations to sell them nuclear technology.

The nuclear plants, to be built at Kudankulam, will take eight years to complete. They will be light-water reactors, in which ordinary water is used to moderate the nuclear reaction. A byproduct is spent fuel with plutonium and other highly radioactive products, which can be processed to make bomb ingredients.

Russia argues that the two plants will be subject to international monitoring to prevent them from contributing to India's nuclear potential, even though some other Indian nuclear installations are not monitored. India has 10 nuclear plants, but they are much smaller and are often unreliable.